(Newser)
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Yale University is mourning a young woman killed this week in a horrific lab accident. Michele Dufault's hair was caught in a lathe in a chemistry lab's machine shop, and the quick-spinning machinery pulled her in, choking her. The medical examiner determined that the 22-year-old senior died from accidental asphyxia by neck compression, the New Haven Register reports.

Dufault, who was majoring in astronomy and physics, and was weeks away from graduating, had worked with NASA on a reduced-gravity experiment and helped design underwater robotic vehicle for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. "The community is deeply saddened by the loss of such an intelligent young woman with such high potential,” said the institution's dean of academic programs. The Yale marching band, in which Dufault played saxophone, performed her favorite selection, Nirvana’s Entertain Us, at a memorial gathering last night. "Today, tomorrow, and forever we are playing our music for her," said a poster on a Facebook memorial page in her honor.

I'm curious how it exactly suffocated her. If her hair got caught I'd expect that the machine rolled it in with great force, ripping it out and potentially ripping of the scalp. But how could she have suffocated if her hair (but not her clothing - which would make more sense given the cause of death) got pulled in?

oldgoat

Apr 14, 2011 5:15 PM CDT

Two of the basic rules of running a machine is have loose hair, clothing and jewelery out of the way. The second rule is never run a machine when nobody else is there. Evidently either the first rule wasn't stressed or she became careless. There was no excuse for this to happen if the first two rules had been in place and followed.